Laura Ingraham faces backlash for insensitive comments

Heartless In her recent episode of "The Laura Ingraham show," you are able to see Laura Ingraham laugh when the topic of rapper, Nipsey Hussle's death was brought up.

Talk show hosts hold a massive amount of power in the media. Such figures are often able to influence millions of followers. But with this power, it is important to have respect and common human decency. Recently, talk show host Laura Ingraham failed to fulfill that responsibility.

On her show “The Laura Ingraham Show,” the talk show host spoke about the late rapper Nipsey Hussle who was gunned down in front of his clothing store on March 31, 2019. Ingraham showed a clip of hip-hop artist YG’s song “FDT,” (F*** Donald Trump) which featured Nipsey Hussle. The song was released in 2016 after the inauguration of Trump and took countless shots at the 45th president of the United States.

Ingraham would go on to laugh when watching the clip “OK that’s a very creative refrain.” She then said “The chorus that goes on and on, is that related to lowest unemployment ever, basically, for African Americans?” But what sparked the most outrage was when Ingraham called Hussle who was a community activist, father and mentor a “dear artist.”

The hip-hop community was immediately outraged at Ingraham's words. Multiple rappers like Snoop Dogg, TI, The Game and many others took to social media to express their anger.

“We are NO LONGER laying quiet while you continuously disrespect our brother, culture African Americans as a whole,” rapper Jayceon Terell Taylor better known as The Game wrote on Instagram. “I will use my platform & call on my peers to do the same. Nips passing nor his legacy is to be taken lightly as there will be consequences for any disrespect now or in the future as long as I have a voice!!!”

Atlanta rapper Clifford Joseph Harris Jr, or TI also commented on the video. “Disgusting,” stated Harris. “My expectations have already decreased so much for mankind in the past couple weeks that this hardly surprised me.”

Disappointment and anger has spread Ingraham’s way since the release of the episode. Various rappers have started a movement to have the talk show host fired from her position. Terell Taylor has started the movement and is advising Fox News to fire the host or it will affect its ratings.

“You will lose millions of followers one day at a time until it drastically affects your ratings” stated Terell Taylor. The rapper also went on to say “I’m asking all of my followers, fans, friends and family to spread this video with demands of #LauraIngrahams termination immediately!!!!” The post received 453,218 likes and over 3 million views on Instagram and has started a campaign toward the firing of Ingraham.

This is not the first time Ingraham has received such backlash from the African American community. In February of 2018, Ingraham attacked NBA superstar, Lebron James. Ingraham was responding on James’ comments made in an ESPN interview where he takes shots at the president. “The No. 1 job in America, the appointed person is someone who doesn’t understand the people,” James said. He would also go on to state how Trump’s comments are “laughable and scary.” Ingraham responded to this by stating that James was “barely intelligible” and “ungrammatical.” She ended the show by telling James to “Keep the political comments to yourselves… shut up and dribble.”

This sparked major outrage from the African American community and the sports world alike. During the 2018 All Star Weekend, James commented “We will definitely not shut up and dribble… I mean too much to society, too much to the youth, too much to so many kids who feel like they don’t have a way out.”

In my opinion Ingraham is now just trying to remain relevant. By sparking outrage in the African American community, she is now making everybody aware that she exists. She should be fired off Fox News as she has not shown any sympathy. Ingraham has continued to find herself in these situations but continues to prompt controversy.

The death of Nipsey Hussle isn’t anything that should be mocked or taken as a joke. Ingraham tried to use the “FDT” music video and the African American unemployment rate against his reputation to no avail. The clip shown was fellow YG and not once was Hussle shown. Her comment on unemployment is pointless as this has nothing to do with his death and her attempt on painting a bad image of the late rapper was disrespectful and cold hearted to say the least.

Hussle was not just a “dear artist,” he was a man that contributed to his community and uplifted his people, something that Ingraham clearly does not have an acknowledgement about.